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I hated my birthstone. While other people got rubies and emeralds, I was born in August, which meant that I was stuck with a pale vapid greenish stone. Of course, in my later years I became acquainted with lovely deep rich peridots, but in my extreme youth, staring into the showcase at the local Macy’s, I couldn’t help but be bitterly disappointed at the wishing washy stones assigned to me.
If only I had been born in April! April babies are drenched in diamonds! But so is the unfairness of life—or as the poet William Blake once put it, though I don’t think he was talking about jewelry: “Some are Born to sweet delight. … Some are Born to Endless Night.”
In any case, when you take a closer look, this whole birthstone business is kind of mysterious. The first sighting is allegedly in the Book of Exodus, which describes a breastplate worn by Aaron adorned with 12 different stones, each representing one of the 12 tribes of Israel and featuring carnelian, chrysolite, beryl, and other gems. Meanwhile, Hinduism features nine jewels associated with celestial forces, with particular stones supposedly warding off potential trouble, based on the sky at the exact place and time of your birth. Still other scholarship attributes this birthstone business to the arrival of Jewish gem traders in Poland in the 16th century.
It wasn’t until 1912 that the National Association of Jewelers got together to officially standardize the list of American birthstones—because it would be fun for customers to buy jewelry that reflected their birthdays—and also, it would be an amazing new way for jewelers to make money!
Then again, there was a downside to this furious gem–typing: namely, due to an accident of birth, you might get stuck with a turkey. (See peridot.) But there is a solution—we can just pretend that we were all born in April, and get to celebrate our special day dripping head to toe like Lucy in the sky.
